Happy happy joy joy

My brand-spankin' new 40BG iPod araved an hour ago. It's formatted, holding 8.8 days worth of music (and it's only 1/3rd full) and currently charging.

Charge card humor

I received an offer to get 15 free prints of digital photos from Sony's Imagestation site. So, I uploaded my photos, selected the ones I wanted prints of and entered my coupon. After the discount and the addition of shipping charges, here's my final bill.

Amazon.com Is For Republicans...

SFGate has an interesting article up regarding which companies give what percentage of their political donations to conservative or liberal causes. You may be surprised by some of the reported results:
Amazon.com Is For Republicans / Attention, liberal shoppers! Next year, screw those GOP-supportin' companies, and try buying blue
Thanks Amy

Foot pain

I don't recall if I mentioned that one morning last week in New York I woke up to significant foot pain but it happened and hasn't gone away so today I went to see a doctor. It seems I'm suffering from Gout.

Quiz results

Rest In Peace...

Which Buffy Musical Song Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

ShaBot 6000: A Very Shabot Christmas

Just what should you do when your Christmas Day Chinese food arrives on the Sabbath? ShaBot 6000 has the answer.

You have been sent a DavidBowie.com Holiday ECard!

Dear blog readers,
Michael has sent you a Holiday Card. View it here. When you're done looking, check out www.davidbowie.com for news, videos, photos and tons of exclusives.
Michael

Merry Christmas

Well, it's Christmas morning and I'm sitting in my folks' living room waiting for my brother and the girls to show up so we can open up the pile of presents under the tree. (I'm also surfing using the neighbor's open WiFi signal. My parents had no idea they had 11mbps available in their living room. If I'm feeling nice I'll go let the neighbors know about the open connection on the fourth. (I'm heading back home on the fifth...)) Anyway, to kill some time I figured I'd post an update on what I've been up to as I've not been blogging for the most of the past week.

On Monday I took the train from Rochester to New York City to visit Amy. The train was only 3.5 hours late by the time I arrived and damn, was it cold.

Tuesday we wandered around lower Manhattan visiting Ground Zero, J&R Music World, Katz's Deli (home of the famous lunch scene in When Harry Met Sally,) and saw the Neil Labute play Fat Pig starring Jeremy Piven, Andrew Macarthy, the woman from Felicity and one other actress who's name escaped me right now. It was off-Broadway ("in the Village") and afterward there was a 30 minute with the actors and another Broadway director.

Wednesday we got to see Avenue Q from the front row for only $21.25. How? Well, there was a lottery at the theater for 12 last-minute tickets and Amy's name was drawn. I can't say enough about how funny this play is. If you're not familiar with it picture the Muppets, post college, broke and living in New York City. This play is not for children. The only other thing I'll say is that I never expected to ever see "full frontal puppet nudity". We also stopped by the 42nd Street branch of NYPL (The one with the lions out front), Lincoln center, and spotted both the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. (All of this is in the photos in my previous post.)

Thursday we spent the morning through a local part with a fort and hiding in the neighborhood Starbucks (thanks Mary!) trying to stay out of the rain. I was then back on the train to head back to Rochester. By the time the train reached Albany it was only an hour late. When we got to Fairport (about 15 minutes by train East of Rochester) we were at a dead stop. It seems that a couple of guys, after being kicked out of a bar for fighting, took it out to the tracks and managed to get creamed by a freight train. Since we weren't allowed through the scene we ended up sitting on the tracks for another two hours. I finally ended up home at something just short of 2am.

Well, the rest of the family are due any minute so I'm off to open gifts.

New York City, such a beautiful disease

My photos from the past four days in The City are now available for viewing on ofoto.

Pinhead is coming to TV

A Hellraiser TV series featuring Pinhead is being developed. The article mentions no involvement on the part of creator Clive Barker.

They've gone and done it!

Well, it looks like the issue's been voted on and Salinas, CA will actually be closing all of it's libraries to help solve budget problems.
thanks mom

NPR : Google's Plan Prompts a Question: What's on the Web?

Just about every other LIS-related blog has posted about this so I was avoiding it. However, this episode of Talk of the Nation was actually interesting enough to make it worth posting about.

Bruce Sterling on giving identity to objects

This is a very interesting presentation Mr. Sterling gave just a day or two ago. Here's some of the terms he discusses: spimes, global identity regimes, obselence prior to full development, early disadopters, and RFID in your trousers.

2004: The Year of the Phish

F-Secure Corp. has released their 2004 data security report subtitled "The year of phishing, professional virus-writing, and arrests".

style master podGuide

O.k. now I've got a work-related reason why I need an iPod. Westciv has a complete CSS reference that you can install on your iPod.
Courtsey of WebStandards.org

Movie news

I'm going to do a 3-in-1 here.

• Aussie Exclusive: "Batman Begins" Poster
• What's Up With "Resident Evil 3"
• "Babylon 5" Movie Planned

Courtsey of Dark Horizions

RSS feed has moved

Due to changes and instabilities in the RSSify system I was using to create my RSS feed I've moved to Blogger's internally supported ATOM Feed. This feed should still work in all current aggregators without any siginficant differences. The only think you'll need to do is unsubscribe from the old one and subscribe to the new one. The new feed URL is http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/atom.xml. Sorry for any inconvienence this may cause but it wasn't my choice.

MSNBC - High-speed Net access coming to planes

It looks like the FCC has approvied WiFi on planes. They're still considering cell phone use but I'm hoping that fails. I don't really want to have to listen to the guy next to my loudly argue with his wife/kid/co-worker for a two hour flight.

Whatcha weedin?

Here's an interesting topic just started on WebJunction to discuss which reference books libraries are currently weeding. I'm hoping it'll become a lively discussion. (The cool part is that you can get an RSS feed of the discussion.)

Woot!

Here's a new idea in online sales. Offer just a single product each day. When it's sold out, come back tomorrow for something new. Well, that's exactly how Woot! works.

New domains given preliminary OK

So, what would you think of travelinlibrarian.mobi?

Lexar introduces smallest USB flash card

There is a physical limit to how small jump drives can be due to the physical design of the technology but here's an article about the smallest USB flash card ever released.
Source: MobileMag.com

The weirdest Palm OS programs

From CanalPDA.com is this list of the weirdest Palm OS programs. I've already installed HAL and Scare the Dog. I'm considering the Bubble Wrap Emulator for those long plane rides.

Christopher Moore

If you're not familiar with the works of Christopher Moore, this Interview from Powells.com is a good place to start.

Bunnies!

"It's a Wonderful Life" in 30 seconds with bunnies.
Thanks Rosario

Lyrics

Choking on a lifetime of never take a chance
Wake up one day wishin you tried
— Edwin McCain

And when I feel like there is no one that will ever know me
there you are to show me
— Train

Libraries Are No Place To Eat

There's nothing like coming home from a long, hard day and receiving this link in my e-mail from the world's coolest eleven-year-old: FUNNY TUMMY - Libraries Are No Place To Eat.
Thanks Gwynneth!

Gmail invites

I've got a couple of Gmail invites to give away. If you want one of them send an e-mail telling me why you diserve one more than anyone else. At my whimsy I'll pick the best of them, post them here (which you agree to let me do by submitting an entry) and send those folks an invite.

Shhh!

I'm at the reference desk and a patron just walked up to the two of us and asked us that "since you're the only two talking and I came here at this time becuase it's so quiet, could you please whisper?"

University to IE: Go take a long walk off a short pier

It seems that Penn States has told 80,000 students to chuck IE. See, I'm not the only one.
Infomration Week

Cool interface design

Being a fan of the old Atari 2600 I just loved playing with this guy's very creative Web site interface.

EOL for NT4

For those of you still using NT4 (me included on the computer connected to my SCSI scanner) you've been warned. End-of-life (i.e. end-of-support) is on December 31st. (Along with Windows 98.)

MP3s in 5.1

According to BetaNews.com there's a new MP3 standard that's been released that allows MP3s to have 5.1 channels of surround-sound without making the files any larger. Now we're talkin'!

Google Suggest

I haven't seen this on any LIS blogs yet so I though I'd get it out there quick. Google has a new beta interface named Google Suggest. Try typing a search into the box and see how it suggests searches to you along with the approximate number of hits that search will receive. I'm not sure this is something that I'll be specifically using on a regular basis but it's a feature useful enough that I'd like to see it integrated into the main search. (Maybe as an option you can turn on/off in preferences?)

Clive & Dirk Cussler

Yesterday I attended a book signing featuring Clive Cussler and his son Dirk. Photos are available on Ofoto.

Tenet calls for Internet security

I'll admit that I've been known to joke that people should have to take a test before being given Internet access but I was joking. According to this Washington Times article, former CIA Director George Tenet thinks we should take the idea seriously.
Courtesy of Politech

Upgrade for Blind Borrowers of Audiobooks

It seems that LOC is going to start distributing materials for the blind in digital format. This NY Times article has the details along with an interesting history of the program and the media it has used in the past.

Quote

If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.
— Frank Zappa

A repeat

This is a repeat from early last year but given the season I figured it was appropriate: Luke, I know what you're getting for Christmas

Dean Koontz question

O.k. Dean Koontz collectors, help me out here. I found this recently in a Putnam Trade Hardcover (first printing) and can't figure out the history of the darn thing. Does anyone know anything about these illustrated signature sheets. It wasn't bound into the book, there's no numbering, or anything else. How may were there? Were they originally with this edition? Were they only given out at an event? Does anyone know anything. I've got a copy of the October 1993 issue of Firsts magazine with the collecting Dean Koontz article for the first person who can give me solid information. (I'll also credit you in the book!)

Near death by floppy

Today I was out at the Norlin Library on the CU Boulder campus to teach the first day of a two-day seminar on XML. I showed up with my materials including a floppy disc for each student so they could get some files from me and have a place for them to store their work and take it away with them. I get there to find that I've forgotten to put the files on my laptop (which has no floppy drive.) So, I figured I'd just copy the files from one of the floppies to my jump drive on one of the lab computers. Small catch, no floppies on any of the lab computers either. Step out into the library proper to find... You guessed it, no floppy drives on any of the public computers either. Eventually the techie found me a portable USB floppy drive that I could use to move the files to my jump drive and then onto all the computers in the lab. The moral of the story: If your class involves floppy discs, ask if the lab has floppy drives.

The blues

"There was a reason that you can dance to the Blues, that you can make love to the Blues, that you can rejoice at the Blues. It’s the commonality of spirit, the shared suffering, the release of grief -- keening through twelve-bar progressions in the key of glee."
— Christpher Moore

Dean Koontz book update

Three bits of Koontz news today:

• The cover for Velocity is now up at Amazon.com. It's of a minimalist design but somehow impressive to me.
• Amazon.com is also listing book two in the Frankenstein series City of Night. Unfortunately, it's not coming out until July 26, 2005.
• The four editions of Life Expectancy released today have been added to the book. (trade hardcover, large print hardcover, cassettes, and CDs)
• The Holiday 2004 issue of Useless News arrived in my mailbox today. All items from this issue have been added to the book.

Only in New York

From a friend in NYC:

Tonight I went to a staged reading of a play at a small theatre in the East Village. In the middle of the show, a man walked in through the front entrance and got up on stage. He was completely naked, except for a pair of hiking boots! At first, I thought it was part of the play, but then F. Murray Abraham got up and shouted to the guy, "Get out of here! We're doing a play!!" and then proceeded to grab the guy and walk him out of the theater. How he got in there to begin with, I don't know!

Digital generations

For those of you that missed all of parts of the series, all five parts of NPR's Digital Generations series are now available online. The most interesting statistic: as of last month, more than half of all home Internet users in the US are now using a broadband connection.

Christopher Moore

Went to see Christopher Moore this evening. He was a funny as ever and was signing his book The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror.

Update: The complete set of photos from the event are now avialable online.

The bleeding is complete

I've taken a red pen to the last page of the XHTML/CSS book. The next step will be to make the changes in the electronic version and then create all the necessary screenshots and files for the CD. Lookin' forward to that I am.

Koontz book update

I just received an advance copy of Strangers in the mail today. I'll try to post a scan of it in the next few days.

And, don't forget, Life Expectancy comes out tomorrow.

Is that a gigabyte in your pocket or...

I found myself over the weekend with a full 256MB jump drive. Finding a good sale at Best Buy I promptly replaced it witha 1GB model for just $59.99 after a mail-in rebate.

BCR news

Two exciting items from the BCR world today:

• Our first RSS feed it now available.
• We have a Trainer/Librarian position open.

Bouldvard of Broken Dreams

My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone

— Green Day

Web design book update

Chapters 10-15 have been bled upon. It seems I forgot to specifically discuss CSS inheritance along with saying that I'd previously not addressed <div> when I actually had, but not as intended. I'm envisioning adding a few more pages to fix these problems.

On writing and editing...

So, I've just finished bleeding upon two more chapters of my XHTML/CSS manuscript, putting me at the half-way mark. I've come to discover one thing about this ms: I turned in a piece of crap as a first draft. I left stuff out, the grammar is poor in places, typos rule other places. It was late and I rushed it to turn it in vaguely on time. Boy was that a mistake. I'm still holding my ground that the content and style of the book is perfect but I know what I should have been saying. I can see why the early reviewers hated it so much because everything I was trying to accomplish got completely lost in the total crapiness of the ms.

So, here's a nickel's worth of advice for those of you considering writing a book. Don't turn it in until it's ready. (Especially if the publisher hasn't paid you any money yet.) Whatever you turn in will still need to be edited but don't turn in something you've not even read once yourself.

Word on a Wing

In this age of grand illusion you walked into my life out of my dreams
I don't need another change, still you forced away into my scheme of things
You say we're growing, growing heart and soul
In this age of grand illusion you walked into my life out of my dreams
Sweet name, you're born once again for me
Sweet name, you're born once again for me
Oh sweet name, I call you again, you're born once again for me
Just because I believe don't mean I don't think as well
Don't have to question everything in heaven or hell

Lord, I kneel and offer you my word on a wing
And I'm trying hard to fit among your scheme of things
It's safer than a strange land, but I still care for myself
And I don't stand in my own light
Lord, lord, my prayer flies like a word on a wing
My prayer flies like a word on a wing
Does my prayer fit in with your scheme of things?

In this age of grand illusion you walked into my life out of my dreams
Sweet name, you're born once again for me
just as long as I can see, I'll never stop this vision flowing
I look twice and you're still flowing
Just as long as I can walk
I'll walk beside you, I'm alive in you
Sweet name, you're born once again for me
And I'm ready to shape the scheme of things

Ooh, ready to shape the scheme of things
Ooh, ready to shape the scheme of things
Ooh, ready to shape the scheme of things
Ooh, ready to shape the scheme of things
Ooh, ready to shape the scheme of things
Ooh...

Lord, I kneel and offer you my word on a wing
And I'm trying hard to fit among your scheme of things
It's safer than a strange land, but I still care for myself
And I don't stand in my own light
Lord, lord, my prayer flies like a word on a wing
And I'm trying hard to fit among your scheme of things
It's safer than a strange land, but I still care for myself
And I don't stand in my own light
Lord, lord, my prayer flies like a word on a wing
My prayer flies like a word on a wing
Does my prayer fit in with your scheme of things?

— David Bowie

Web design book update

Chapters eight & nine have been bled upon. More importantly, in going through the edit I discovered I had completely left out the topic of mailto: hyperlinks. Five new pages have been written to cover it.

Web design book update

Chapter 7, Tables, has been bled upon.

One Thing

Restless tonight
Cause I wasted the light
Between both these times
I drew a really thin line
It’s nothing I planned
And not that I can
But you should be mine
Across that line

If I traded it all
If I gave it all away for one thing
Just for one thing
If I sorted it out
If I knew all about this one thing
Wouldn’t that be something

I promise I might
Not walk on by
Maybe next time
But not this time

Even though I know
I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know
I just hate how it sounds

— Finger Eleven

Web design book update

I've finished bleeding (in red pen) all over chapters 3-6. It's not a lot but it's a step in the right direction.

"Just Another Dime Store Novel"

Stop me if you've heard this one.

Well, I said, looky here, baby, I'm here for the same reason you are. I've been married to the same woman for twenty-five years, and not once has she asked me what I do for a living. She tells me that she loves me but I know that she's a gyppy. I find matchbooks in her purse from every goddam bar in town. Her mother's a transvestite and her father was always a poor brush man, but he was bald as door knob and hell, I was afraid to try. I had a vasectomy when I was thirteen years old, when I knocked up this thirteen hundred pound Mexican woman. I didn't have a green card and I worked for her father for seven years, at the Hermasillo Chamber of Commerce. Hell, I had minimum wage and shit, and I finally told him hey, he could have his job for crying out loud. And I told her I was going out for a pack of cigarettes one night. I got into a taxi cab and told him to take me to East St Louis, I'll pay whatever's on the meter. Now that's when I hooked up with this pharmacist, you see? Yeah, this pharmacist, crazy pharmacist, you see? Let me sweep up in the apothecary for a hot meal and some neosenefrin while I studied hotel management at night.

Well, I finally got ready for the exam and I rented a room above a barber shop, when Jimmy the Lock one night broke in, stole some Lucky Tiger, a half pint of Bay Rum, and a 'Field & Stream' magazine. I caught a cross-town bus. Well you see, I told the guy to let me off at the nearest bar and I walked inside and what do you know? That's right! A girl I hadn't seen in fifteen years recognized me after a shave and told me that she thought we could make beautiful music together, and I said, 'Baby, I have a tin ear' and she said, 'Shit, I have a glass eye and a bum leg'. So we went to her place and I found she was running guns to Africa and selling Avon products without a license, so I borrowed a car to go to the beach and meet new friends. Damn!

Eh-he-he... Well, that ain't the half of it, man, you know... boy, have I got troubles, man... Well, I was pulled over for driving without sunglasses and Bermudas, and I was harassed and intimidated until we got to talking about Pete Kelly's blues, and I know a guy named Webb, and they gave me a free color brochure booklet on how to avoid child molesting, and I drove away with a new lease on life and ten dollars in my pocket, which I spent on an out-of-print Cozy Cole album at Music Man Murray's, which I considered an investment in the future. Along with a hi-fi recording of the 1959 Grand Prix at Sebring, which was in the wrong jacket and turned out to be a Rudy Ray Moore album. Well anyhow, I'd been trying to lay my hands on that sucker for years, and needless to say I was beside myself, so I turned to myself and I said. 'Hey Earl! You gonna be a bum all your life?' You know. I said, 'Are you talking to ME?' Eh-he... Earl was one of my aliases at the time, you see. I was traveling under the name of Earl Scheib, maybe you've heard of me?

Well anyhow, to make a long story short, I threw in with these Italian guys in Montabello. Well, they talked me into opening up a used-food restaurant, and hell you know, you got used cars, used clothes, used furniture, why not used food, well? For the less fortunate people who don't get out much, you know what I mean.

Anyhow, on opening night this one-armed bass-player goes berserk right in front of the goddam place, with search lights and all, well that attracted the authorities over there.. eh-he... They were tipped off, you see. I always maintained that it was a real inside job, and they discovered it was a front for a prosthetics supermarket and a pet hospital.

Anyhow... I was at a loss for words, and I was sent to two years in prison, but they suspended the sentence, and had me listen to a band called Mondray for six months and no parole. Anyhow, I got out and I swore I was going straight. I got the first flight to Vegas where I enrolled in a major university and spent two years studying to be a typing teacher. My analyst said it was the healthiest thing he ever heard of. Anyhow, before the end of the fiscal year I was living on chicken and wine, I'm not talking about bullshit here! No record. Clean. Every night I'd put on a tie and hit the after hours bars with my old beat-up Underwood typewriter. I'd only read about these places in Tally's Corner , mind.

Anyhow, here I was with shades on hanging out in the bar. Well, this trombone player named Marcel Tupee asked me if I wanted to sit in one night, and of course I was nervous and scared and shit. Well, he who hesitates is lost, and when I got on the bandstand and they hit me with the spotlight, I knew that something was happening, and they kicked off a blues in B-flat and I just typed, man! Like a crazy man! Typed like a crazy man, all that woodsheddin' had paid off, and oh hell, baby, 'You Shiiiibe man', you've heard the story a thousand times, I know. I don't wanna bore you. It's a dime store novel, and hell, you know the rest. I got strung out and then I got my own group, and started playing the MYF meetings, like three shows a night, four on the weekends, and I couldn't pay the band, they left me flat one night in Montgomery Wards. I was there, you know, bartering for some band uniforms, and hell, I ain't seen hide nor hair of 'em since, so I got out of the racket. Went back to my first wife and begged her to take me back, told her I'd changed, there'd be no more of them bondage scenes, and I'm a new man. She slapped me with a fifteen dollar bill for an orthodontist who claimed I walked the check on some braces. Are you sure you wanna hear this, man? Anyhow, she gave me the bum's rest, Jack, and I got a job sweeping up at Yonkers' race track. And one afternoon right in the middle of the daily double, I got inspiration.

I remembered Hitler's phone number. That's right, thirteen thirteen, lucky number! And I put everything I had, sixty-eight bucks, on number thirteen, 'Big Blitz', and it paid ten to one, I got twelve hundred and sixty bucks. Quit my job, drove all night to New Orleans where I met the girl of my dreams, woke her up and played the long version of 'Harlem Nocturne' on my trumpet. She called the paramedics and they shot me full of thorozine, and said take a long walk off a short pier, well I ain't no fool! No siree! I got me three hots and a flop and the first thing smokin' out of town, if you understand what I mean.

And baby, I saw you in nineteen fifty-seven. Nineteen fifty-seven in a Lincoln Continental with Rhode Island plates, passing me on Route 66 doing seventy-five miles an hour, with a blue scarf around your neck, smoking a Lucky Strike, and wearing Chanel No. 5, with a Rosemary Clooney record on the radio, and I knew you didn't see me. But I saw you! And I told myself that night, that I gotta get next to that girl. So what do you say you slide down a stool, and we could get acquainted?

— Tom Waits
From the 'Foreign Affairs' Sessions, July - August 1977

Google News RSS Generator

Here's one that I'm hoping I've actually been Steven Cohen to: a Google News RSS Generator. Just type in some search terms and you've got an instant RSS feed from a Google News search.